The Design Group

Images mean things, especially images put forth by corporate logos. In the case of The Design Group of Little Rock, the logo is a sharp square and the letter “D,” the lower right hand corner of which dissolves into the background.

Read right to left, it suggests the com pany takes chaotic elements and brings them into sharp focus. Read left to right, it sends a very different message – that the multicultural marketing compa ny takes the status quo and blows it to pieces.

Asked which is a more ac curate description of the firm and co-founders Myron Jackson and Telly Noel smile.

“It would be the latter and not the former,” Jackson said.

“If we’re nothing else in this agency, we are disruptors. The status quo has always been about developing marketing messages that were meant to be relevant to all, but really only appeal to a few. As disruptors, we really try to challenge the status quo by creating an agency that speaks to the total market.

“We develop innovative communications that speak to the new ‘diversity-rich’ marketplace, whether you’re trying to identify consumers by race, ethnicity, lifestyle, life stage or sexual orientation.”

In their early days working for other agencies, Noel and Jackson saw campaigns that were inaccu- rate, pandering and failed to con nect with African American and Latino consumer segments.

The duo, who have known each other since Little Rock’s McClellan High School, finally decided to take the bold step of building a firm.

“Back then, when you talked about multiculturalism in terms of African Americans or La tinos, there was still this assumption that, because of shared language, there was shared culture,” Jackson said. “Our approach was to prove to clients that if your brand was associated with meaningful cultural narratives and relevant experiences, the result would be huge returns.”

“The early days were interesting,” Noel said. “We spent a lot of time trying to explain to people the importance of our market and what we do. It wasn’t accepted then, in terms of understanding multicultural communications, because there was just a general market approach to everything, driven primarily by the lack of diversity at the decision-making table. It took us some time to educate our prospective clients about what we did and how we did it.”

A cross-section of current clients ranges from Arkansas Department of Health, University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff and Saint Mark Baptist Church to FBT Bank, African American Mayors Association and First Security Bank. The firm has grown into a regional presence and serves clients as far asway as Washington, D.C.

Stephanie Jackson, a veteran of local media and Myron’s wife, has headed the PR side of the house for 11 years. She said the challenge of providing cultural education to the media is a constant, especially as television and radio stations in many markets are still behind the diversity curve, from management to front-line reporters.

“Most newsrooms are not minority-owned,” she said. “In fact, we only have one newsroom in central Arkansas that is run by a minority woman, and she is only one of two women who manage newsrooms in the state’s largest media market. Knowing the obstacles that are still in place for women, especially minority women, I can hopefully be more effective in helping reporters and newsroom managers understand why a particular story would resonate with their audience.

For everything that’s different and groundbreaking about the nature of The Design Group’s messaging, the underlying principles that make them effective are surprisingly simple.

“The science of what we do hasn’t necessarily changed,” Noel said. “Honestly, people’s perceptions have changed. People’s understanding of the importance of telling our stories from our lens has changed.”

Myron Jackson agreed, adding the team maintains its voice and insights by spending a lot of time in the community, keeping their fingers on the pulse of the audience they are trying to reach.

“We often say that we have proximity power,” he said. “In the African American community, the target demo may be Telly’s mom, may be my aunt, may be a brotherin-law, may be a cousin. We use that proximity power and revel in the fact that no one’s going to understand that segment better than the individuals who are living it every day.

All three executives agreed the future holds nearly boundless opportunity for the firm as formerly underrepresented and disenfranchised population segments emerge, affirming their existence and value. As that happens, The Design Group will remain in step with the times, helping clients communicate more directly and effectively.

“Where do we go from here? We continue to grow,” Noel said. “We’re bold, we’re unapologetic and we want to keep helping brands benefit from being culturally connected.”

When Samantha and Kreg Stewart rented out part of a shared kitchen space and paid to design a logo, the plan was not to start a pizzeria. Rather, it was a development from a side hustle in meal prep that had outgrown their home kitchen. Kreg had lost his job as a truck driver due to the pandemic, which they viewed as an opportunity to turn their meal prep into a true business. Then a close friend of theirs, Harlem Wilson, turned that plan in a whole new direction.

While Kreg was a trucker and Samantha a businesswoman, pizza has long been both a passion and a profession for Wilson. His first two jobs were both making pizzas, but he decided to start making them at home, learning how to make dough from scratch. He gave Kreg a home-made pizza for his birthday in 2020, and Kreg described it as a lightbulb moment.

“It just makes sense in terms of profit margins,” Kreg said. “You don’t have to do as many things as with meal prep, since you can’t serve the same food or people will get tired of it. But some people never get tired of pizza and wings.”

Still operating out of that rented kitchen space only accessible from the back of a shopping center, Certified Pies only offers carryout and delivery. Despite the odd location, the owners noted that the support they have received from customers has been incredible.

“We had a tour bus from Missouri come through just this past weekend,” Samantha said. “I mean, just to think that they drove a bus around the back of this building to find us.”

Certified Pies’ menu boasts a range of specialty options that the owners have named after their shared passion for music. These include the Al Green, the Smooth Operator, and the Sweet James Jones, a unique combination of lump crab meat, bacon, green on- ions and alfredo sauce, which has proven to be one of the most popular options. Both the wings and some of the pies make use of Truth Sauce, produced by another local business owner, Keith Tucker Jr.

“We take pride in what we do,” Kreg said. “We’ve tweaked everything and we’ve watched the business grow. We’ve made our dough over several times to the product that it is today, we went through